FOR me one of the key moments of this week’s SNP conference in Glasgow came on Monday lunchtime at the IPPR’s massively over-subscribed Brexit fringe event with Michael Russell and Stephen Gethins.
Heather Anderson, the SNP councillor for Tweeddale West in the Scottish Borders was given a huge round of applause when she pleaded with Russell for the green light to start campaigning properly on independence.
She asked the minister to “acknowledge the level of frustration in the party that we’re not being able to get out and campaign for an independent Scotland In Europe”.
“There’s a real sense that you need to mobilise on the ground, you need to be making the case and we’re very frustrated with constantly being told to just wait until we find out,” she added, saying there was a “sense time is slipping away”.
“If we actually believe in being an independent European country can we please get some guidance from the party about beginning to take that campaign live on the streets.”
It’s worth pointing out, of course, that Gethins and Russell disagreed – “I understand that frustration, I feel that frustration but nobody is stopping anybody doing anything,” the Scottish Brexit Secretary told the councillor.
But Anderson’s is not alone in her frustration.
Yesterday’s speech by the First Minister was an attempt to balance her party’s enthusiasm to get out and campaign, and the need to get the arguments and the timing just right.
Independence was front and centre during Nicola Sturgeon’s address to delegates.
It was, by my reckoning, the most independence heavy speech she’s given since taking over as party leader back in November 2014.
The word independence was mentioned 13 times, and there were 27 references to an independent Scotland – way more than in any other of her conference speeches.
In fact in her previous three conference speeches there were 30 mentions in total.
“Just think how much more we could do free of the chaos and incompetence of Westminster,” she told delegates.
At times it was more like the sort of speech you’d have expected in the run up to an actual indyref.
“Just think how much more hope will be possible when we take Scotland’s future into Scotland’s hands and become an independent country.
“An independent Scotland, just as Scotland is now, will be a beacon for progressive values – equality, opportunity, diversity and fairness.”
There was also a reference to last Saturday’s All Under One Banner march, where thousands and thousands and thousands of independence supporters marched through the streets of Edinburgh.
“The passion in our movement – demonstrated on the streets of Edinburgh at the weekend – is wonderful.
“It gladdens my heart. To those who say there is no demand for Scotland to have a choice over our future, I say – the polls and the people are telling a different story.”
The vote for “a better future” is coming, she said.
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